After all the virtual public flogging National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden has received, in the past week a few voices have suggested cutting him some slack.

At a Tuesday closed-door meeting with tech leaders, one unnamed participant suggested to Obama that Snowden be pardoned; Obama said he couldn't do that. During a 60 Minutes report on the leaks that aired Sunday, though, even an NSA official suggested it might be worth discussing amnesty—if and only if he returns the leaked documents securely, almost surely an impossibility at this point. (CBS news has been busy defending itself against accusations that Sunday's show was a "puff piece.")

Even that tiny, tentative olive branch seems to have crossed a line for security hawks. NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander dismissed the idea, comparing Snowden to "a hostage taker taking 50 people hostage, shooting 10, and then say[ing], 'You give me full amnesty and I'll let the other 40 go.'"

Former CIA director James Woolsey responded to the suggestion of amnesty even more strongly, saying in a Fox News interview that Snowden should be hanged.

"I think giving him amnesty is idiotic,” said Woolsey, who ran the CIA from 1993 to 1995. “He should be prosecuted for treason. If convicted by a jury of his peers, he should be hanged by his neck until he is dead."

The tough talk on Snowden came the day after a federal judge found the NSA's broad phone surveillance program is likely unconstitutional. US District Judge Richard Leon is the first federal judge to consider the program who does not sit on the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

"hanged by the neck until dead" I recall stories of random Joes that posted similarly truculent statements on Facebook, and were raided by SWATS and incarcerated for threats and/or terrorism. While this guy gets to regurgitate his little mouthful of hateful bile - which one can reasonably assume he's in a better position to execute - and what happens?! SWAT, Team America, not even the A-Team?

Of I were Snowden I'd never trust any offers of amnesty from the USA. He may have done the world a favour, for which I'm grateful, but those in power, in the USA, will never see it that way. Nor will they be willing to forgive, not for at least 20 or so years. Even then I'd be wary.

That quotation by a person no longer serving in a position to act on it should not be considered a threat because there's no reason to believe that he would follow through on it and he even says it should be a consequence of a conviction. Instead, it's a deeply disturbing and ignorant comment that reveals the dichotomy between the beliefs of those in Top Secret America and the ideals that the US is supposed to stand for.

"hanged by the neck until dead" I recall stories of random Joes that posted similarly truculent statements on Facebook, and were raided by SWATS and incarcerated for threats and/or terrorism. While this guy gets to regurgitate his little mouthful of hateful bile - which one can reasonably assume he's in a better position to execute - and what happens?! SWAT, Team America, not even the A-Team?

Tsz, tsz...

What are you babbling about? People get raided for posting threats against specific persons, groups, schools, etc. This isn't remotely the same. Woolsey was talking about the LEGAL process of trying him for treason and the potential sentence, which can be the death penalty.

What a most ridiculous thing to say. But the upside is, with statements from people like that stating he should be killed for his actions, that should help him qualify for political asylum more easily.

Here is hoping a country gives him permanent asylum soon. Too many people in the current administration want his head on a pike.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that current and former members of our spook community are so contemptibly rude and arrogant toward the countrymen they supposedly had/have committed their careers to serve, but it's still sort of shocking. Power corrupts? Fatally flawed from the outset? A little of both? Just depressing.

So, they make it so that there are no whistleblowing channels that aren't controlled by the individuals being reported, then call it treason when the person reporting them goes outside the system instead? I understand that a scattershot document release (which is the sense I've gotten from most sources I've read, but I could be wrong) probably wasn't the best way to disseminate the information that needed to be given to the public, but even after administrative panels the government put together agree that reforms need to be made, we can't accept this person back into the country?

Not that this surprises me at all, it's just that when you look at it all, it's still amazing how screwed up everything with this situation is.

Well and i just did thought that the ones taking hostages was the NSA, they have all the american population hostage, i mean their personal information, and they are shooting them when they do it without any reason at all, they are doing the shoot now ask later, thats how they are handling things, i think his sub-councious, if he has one, let that out, they way he thinks and behaves is how he makes correlations.

As for "hanged by the neck until dead" remark, if Snowden deserves that, then all the NSA, government and FISC tops, well they will be hanged by the balls (male reproductive organs) until dead.

If they think all violations of law must be punished, it's time to start prosecutions for the warrantless wiretapping the NSA did from 2001-2007, and all the telecoms that voluntarily cooperated. Oh, but they got retroactive immunity didn't they? Because the DNI requested it? So I guess the intelligence community does believe there should be exceptions to the law, just only in their favor.

Too many westerns maybe? Is hanging still a thing? Pretty gross. Snowden is a patriot and will go down in history as a hero.

Billy Bailey, the last American prisoner to be hanged was executed in 1996, in the state of Delaware. Hanging is no longer an option in Delaware, but remains a means of capital punishment in Washington and New Hampshire.

New Hampshire retains it as an option if lethal injection is "impractical," which may be the case of someone with a long history of intravenous drug abuse (the veins won't carry the drugs properly).

The real people that should be tried for treason are the shitbags that lied to congress about the scope of the spying.

I hear this accusation thrown around by Snowden hero worshipers excessively.

Can someone cite some resources that clearly specifies how the NSA (and any other US intelligence agency) has lied to congress despite FISA and the Patriot Act?

This is a purely academic request.

I feel like I've seen a few people referencing the NSA Director claiming that bulk metadata is not collected for US citizens, but I can't seem to find any articles detailing the actual hearing this supposedly happened in. Admittedly, I'm not as knowledgeable about the particulars as I should be. )=

Pop quiz, Woolsey. Remember the Pledge of Allegiance? Remember the closing words? With WHAT two things for ALL? Hint: one starts with an L. One starts with a J. And remember? The land of the WHAT and the home of the brave? What's the way of life you're defending, pard?